


Morning Light

by LilyAngorian



Category: Peaky Blinders
Genre: A day between them, Conversation, F/M, Flirting, Honesty, Non-Explicit Sex, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-04 18:20:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3080492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyAngorian/pseuds/LilyAngorian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I haven't seen many Tommy/May fics and as much as I love Grace, I think that the two of them do work well together. I just wanted to explore their relationship a bit more and create a past for May.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The sunlight caught the spiralling circles of dust, streaming past the edges of the thin blinds, touching at the dresser and the end of the bed. Her bedroom was warm, window edged open to let in the breeze. Stood beside it was Tommy, thumbing through a large leather-bound book and frowning. His pale skin had turned to gold in the light, the muscles of his back shifting slightly as he turned the pages.

"Come back to bed."

May felt too lazy to stretch, limbs still heavy with sleep, but she lay on her side and watched him turn towards her. He held the book up, gesturing to a double page of light sketches of flowers and birds.

"Did you draw these?"

"Yes, though a long time ago."

"They're good."

He looked back down at the pages, picking out the delicate lines between the wider strokes.

"Just a hobby."

Her voice seemed strained. 

"I gave it up after he died. He was always far better at it than I was." 

Tommy nodded and carefully put it back on the shelf. He wandered back over to the bed and pulled the sheets up so he could slide in next to her. 

"Did he draw you?"

"No. I never let him."

"Why?"

"Because I always wondered what he really saw when he looked at me. But I could never bear to find out."

She was properly awake now, fingers absentmindedly picking at a feather protruding from the pillowcase.

"Arthur used to draw, when he was younger. Horses mainly, but sometimes he'd draw Polly and Ada when they were too busy to notice."

"Was he any good?"

"He didn't show me many. But when he did, I remember thinking that he always got something right."

Tommy seemed distant, eyes blankly searching the ceiling. 

"There was this girl he fancied, when he was fourteen. Long brown hair. Cruel little bitch it turned out, but I found this sketch of her under his bed one day when we were playing. He'd made her too pretty, but he'd got her face perfect. This cold, mocking smile..."

His voice trailed off, and May rested her hand on his, her touch pulling him away from his thoughts. She smiled gently.

"I thought we could spend the day here, if you didn't have anywhere else to be."

"John said he wanted to talk to me about something, but I'm sure it can wait until later. You're much better company than any of my brothers."

"What an exquisite compliment."

Tommy grinned, May rolling over playfully so that she was leaning her chin on her elbows, looking across at him. 

"I'm sure you can do better than that. Have another go."

"Your clothes always suit you...but they look even better on the floor."

"I'm afraid you'll never be a gentleman with a tongue like that."

"Well I'm sure my tongue can be put to better use."

His expression told her that he wasn't referring to kissing, but May pressed her lips to his anyway, fingers twisting into his hair. She pulled away slowly, leaning over him to reach for her cigarettes, her breasts brushing lightly across his chest. 

"Luckily for you, I don't want a gentleman. I think I'm too much work for most of them."

"But not for me?"

She lit two and handed him one.

"I think it may be the other way around."

"Doesn't seem like it bothers you."

"For years people have treated me like I'm made of porcelain, pitied me. Now they make no efforts to hide that fact they seem to think I've lost my mind. It's an improvement, as far as I'm concerned. " 

"Am I that shameful?"

"You're real. They couldn't be less so. Every smile is cultivated, every insult hidden beneath layers of politeness. Once you realise that, they're quite insufferable." 

"That's why you like me?"

"Why not?"

"You think I'm more honest than any of them?"

"Of course not. I'm only with you for your body."

May smiled and blew smoke at him, before turning back over so she could rest her head against his chest. She watched their wisps of smoke combine above them.

"We could go swimming in the lake. It seems like the weather for it, and we could always take some lunch down with us." 

Tommy did not reply, but he chuckled softly.

"What?"

"It's just refreshing. Your life is so different to mine."

"I imagine it does you good to get away from it."

"I think it does." 

He continued quietly.

"I'm not always honest May."

"I know. But I trust you in spite of that. Does that make me a fool?"

"Yes."

"Then I suppose I don't really care."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"So don't."

May got up, dropping the remainder of the cigarette into the ashtray on the bedside table. She picked her dressing gown up off the floor and loosely tied it around her. She stood uncertainly with her back to him for a moment, hand clenching briefly around the knot, and then she turned to face him. 

"I don't ask you to be anyone but yourself. It's you that I want. Regardless of how you behave around other people."

"Until it affects you."

She clenched her jaw and nodded, eyes flicking around the room before returning to his.

"There's someone else?"

"No."

He thought fleetingly of Grace. But she had chosen her path.

"But if there was, you don't know that I would tell you. That I would choose you."

"Well then."

She crossed back to the bed, footsteps light on the wooden floor. She paused for a brief moment, and then moved so she straddled him over the sheets, stroking the side of his face as she leaned in to kiss him. 

"What are doing?"

"Evidently I need to give you something you would miss."

"May..."

"Be quiet."

She whispered it into his mouth, thumb running over his cheek as she closed the gap between them. Tommy was unresponsive at first, but as she deepened the kiss his hands clutched at her waist, pulling her down against him. He drew away to throw back the sheets, turning her onto her back and leaning down to kiss her again. His fingers wrenched at the belt of her dressing gown, pulling it open and running his hands down her sides. They tussled on the bed, all thought of disapproving maids long since forgotten, with entangled limbs and shallow breaths.

Afterwards they lay in silence, until May broke it, her tone assured.

"I asked the cook to make apple pie yesterday. Maybe we should take some of that down to the lake too."

Tommy smiled. He could allow himself to put everything else aside, just for one afternoon.


	2. Chapter 2

May lay with her back pressed to the grass, the thin fabric of her blouse shifting under the breeze, a diamond of flesh visible just above her skirt. Eyes closed under the glare of the midday sun, pale cheeks slowing turning a pinkish hue. Tommy was sat beside her, knees up in front of him and cap and jacket abandoned on the grass.

"Do you come here a lot?”

"Now and again. Beautiful isn't it?”

The trees lining the edges of the lake were thick with green leaves, a weeping willow casting its branches over the water a little way down from them.

"Do you think we could just stay here?”

"Indefinitely you mean?" 

“Why not?”

His voice seemed the calmest May thought she would ever hear it.

"I'd need a few furs for when the winter chills set in. And no doubt you'd need a phone installed down here, in order to keep your empire going. But that picnic basket could certainly last us a few weeks.”

"I don't think I've ever seen so much apple pie.”

"We could have more after dinner, if you aren't tired of it. I'm sure the maids will finish whatever we can't. There's usually more food made than I can manage alone.”

Tommy frowned.

"I can't work out how you feel about your staff. There are times you talk like you resent them, and others where you seem to treat them like family. I’ve wondered why.”

“If you’re looking for the skeletons in my closet, I can assure you that your own are likely to be far more exciting.”

“Probably.”

After a lengthy pause, May realised that he did not intend to elaborate. She looked mildly uncomfortable, but answered without too much hesitation.

"I've been brought up by maids and cooks really. A nanny too, when I was a child. I would be presented to my mother and father once or twice a day, whenever their schedules allowed. But the rest of the time, before I went away to school, I didn't have anyone but staff for company.”

She spoke matter-of-factly, eyes still closed, but fingers toying with the grass.

"As for the staff here, they were always more gracious with my husband. I thought about hiring new girls when he died, but I kept putting it off, and now there doesn't seem to be much point. They may be sullen, but they know how things work.”

"They seem alright.”

"To you. Naturally.”

"Because I'm as common as they are?”

Tommy failed to conceal the faint flicker of resentment, but May ignored it.

"No. Because you're a man.”

"You really think it comes down to that?”

For a while it appeared that she was not going to answer. Tommy watched a bird circling the trees, diving here and there amongst the leaves. After what seemed like a long time, May spoke quietly.

"Do you remember the blonde maid who brought you through when you arrived yesterday?”

"Vaguely.”

"Lucy, I think she's called. After the funeral, I went down to the guest wing to get away from everyone else, and I heard someone crying. She had hidden herself away, sat on the edge of one of the beds, eyes red and shoulders shaking. Hardly a response I could ignore.”

"So she was upset. Death does that to people, whoever they are.”

"Two months and three days she'd been hired when he left to fight. Not long enough for that bond to develop any other way. So yes, in my experience, it usually does come down to that.”

Tommy nodded.

"You didn't trust him?”

"I loved him, and that was enough. But by the end I doubt he cared whether I trusted him or not. He was a good man. But he wasn't what you could class as a good husband. Not that I'm really sure what makes a man one of those.”

"And you think I've turned her head, as she turned his?”

"Of course you have.”

"Why?”

"Fishing for compliments?”

He could hear the smile then, even though there was no physical evidence. 

"You were this morning.”

“Yes, but I'm emotionally insecure. You can hardly share that excuse.”

May thought for a moment, struggling to phrase it.

"It's as though everything you touch is yours. You sit like every chair has been made for you. That sort of attitude in itself is more than enough to encourage any woman after money.”

She wasn't sure that explanation covered it, but it seemed to satisfy him.

"And what about the woman who already has money?”

"Well I can only suppose that you have some hidden depths that she alone can see.”

"But if you were to guess…”

May finally opened her eyes and sat up. She drew her knees to one side and looked across at him.

"It really bothers you what I think?”

"I like to know my strengths as well as my weaknesses.”

“What weaknesses?”

“Now who's looking for skeletons?”

May shook her head with a smile.

"You're...well you're...compelling.”

"Compelling?”

"You had me hooked at 'I do bad things’. I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

"Surely that says more about you than me?”

She glanced away at the water.

"Yes, I suppose it does.”

“I’m not sure that emotionally insecure really covers it.”

His voice was thick with amusement.

“Carry on like that and I may make you sleep here tonight.”

But she kissed him anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

They ate dinner largely in silence, in a room that seemed to Tommy far too big for any real purpose. May was delicate to the point where he began to think about his own eating, and she picked at the food with her cutlery as a fussy child would. Her plate was still half-full when she lay her knife and fork down, gravy cold and thick against the plate by then.

“You not hungry?”

“I’m full.”

“It was good.”

He gestured to his empty plate.

“Yes it was.”

May's tone was a little sharper than normal. She seemed to regret that, casting her eyes down and getting up from the table to wander over to the drinks cabinet.

“Have I done something to offend you?”

She shook her head apologetically.

“I’m sorry. I’m just rather tired.”

"I could drive back now if you’d like?”

“You’ve only just finished eating. Stay for another drink at least.”

“Alright."

He got up too, brushing past one of the maids as she entered the room, and crossing over to where May stood. 

“You don’t eat much.”

“I don’t have much of an appetite.”

“Not for food. Maybe for other things.”

May wondered briefly how long it would be before that assured tone would start to strike her as arrogant. There was no denying it suited him, but she knew from experience that some of the most appealing traits quickly become tiresome. She did not reply.

She watched him drain another glass, breath heavy with the scent of whiskey as he put it down on the table beside her. His hand trailed down from the nape of her neck to the small of her back.

"Sometimes I think there’s more liquor than blood running through your veins.”

Tommy seemed to find that amusing, grinning as his face drew closer to hers, and whispering in her ear.

"Less blood to spill.”

"You'll be gone by morning I imagine?”

"I have a few hours. But I need to be back before its gets light. Things to do.”

“People to frighten?” 

“Only the ones who deserve it.”

May saw the maid glance up at them from the dinner table as she was clearing it. She held the woman’s gaze for a moment and then placed a hand firmly on Tommy’s shoulder, walking away from him towards the window. She spoke with her back turned to him, voice bordering on polite.

“I suppose I should be grateful that you can fit me in to your busy schedule.”

"You make it sound like a chore.”

May found his hands on her again, one either side of her waist, his breath on the back of her neck.

"Isn't it? I'm simply a distraction. Your world keeps growing by the second, and yet here you are with me.”

"I always need a distraction. I need someone May.”

“Yes but the problem with a distraction is that it's always going to be fleeting for a man like you.”

"Yet here I am. In your house. Between your sheets.”

She felt him lean more closely against her, and let her eyes close.

“You're exactly where I want you to be.”

"Good.”

His voice had fallen to a whisper again.

There came the rather exaggerated sound of plates and glasses being collected behind them, and May sighed wearily.

“Perhaps we should continue this conversation somewhere else.”

Tommy made no effort to keep his hands off of her as they made their way to her bedroom, grip possessive on whatever part of her was closest as she led him down the long corridors. 

******

As he got into the car, she tapped the bonnet lightly with her palm. There was a chill to the air, her tousled clothing seeming all too light as she ground her teeth firmly against the chattering.

“You should get inside.”

“I wanted to see you off.”

“Anyone would think you were trying to get rid of me.”

“You know I would have you stay, if I thought it would do you any good.”

“I’d be better off here.”

“Financially. But it would crush the criminality out of you, slowly but surely. And we couldn’t have that.”

“Then I’d lose all my appeal.”

“Exactly.”

She paused.

“When will I see you next?”

“I’ll phone you in the next few days.”

“Well then I suppose I’ll be waiting.”

She kissed him, one fleeting touch, and then pulled away. 

“Try to stay alive long enough to see me again.”

“Will do.”

He was gone before her smile faded, before she turned with a sinking feeling towards the lights of the house and the waiting open door.


End file.
